Leading the Charge for Justice in Ohio: Petersen Firm Challenges the Catastrophic Injury Cap News & Insights
- October 22, 2025
- PetersenLegal
- Comments Off on Leading the Charge for Justice in Ohio: Petersen Firm Challenges the Catastrophic Injury Cap News & Insights
Petersen Law is proud to lead a landmark case now before the Ohio Supreme Court — the first direct challenge to Ohio’s catastrophic injury damages cap in medical malpractice cases.
As reported by the Columbus Dispatch, our client, John Paganini, is a 94-year-old Marine veteran. While caring for his wife of 68 years in her final months of life, John suffered an eye emergency that went untreated by his doctor— medical negligence cost him his left eye. In January 2024, after our five-day trial, a jury of Ohioans valued his loss, his eye deformity, glass-eye surgery, and his stolen independence at $1.487 million.
After the jury went home, the defendants asked the court to slash that verdict to $500,000 — a 66.47% cut — under a 2003 law that caps damages only for medical malpractice victims, even the most catastrophically injured. If the same doctor had hit John with his car in the hospital’s parking lot and caused the exact same injury, the jury’s verdict would stand.
Two courts said no. Our trial court and the Eighth District Court of Appeals held that reducing John’s verdict would violate the due process protections Ohioans have relied on for more than a century. John led the charge to obtaining the first appellate decision that held that Ohio’s med mal catastrophic injury cap was unconstitutional. He was the only man who took on this fight since the law was put into effect 22 years ago.
Our attorneys, Susan Petersen and Todd Petersen, continue to fight to uphold the verdict, and protect the rights of Mr. Paganini. Shockingly, the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and several corporate lobbying groups have now filed written pleas, asking the Ohio Supreme Court to do something extraordinary — to abandon over 30 years of its own precedent and erase those protections for the most catastrophically injured Ohioans.
It is now John vs. Goliath.
This is battle will come down to whether our Ohio Supreme Court will continue to honor its Constitution and protect those victimized by life-changing injuries — or allow activist arguments to undo long-settled Ohio Supreme Court law. What is most terrifying is that the Attorney General is asking the Court to eliminate due process protections all together- these have protected all of us for more than a century. This is all so wrong and we are so very proud to stand with John Paganini. We will fight to protect the rule of law and Ohio’s Constitutional protections.
If our Attorney General’s Office would try to take away the due process rights of a 94-year-old Marine Veteran who lost an eye, what will they do to your rights — or someone you love?
👉 Read the Dispatch story here: https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/courts/2025/08/21/ohio-supreme-court-case-veteran-challenges-law-in-malpractice-lawsuit/85624507007